Tag Archives: Activities

No-Mess Fingerpaint for Toddlers

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no-mess fingerpaint arts and crafts

Yesterday I shared how excited I was to find five great “no-mess” arts and crafts supplies for kids while wandering the aisles of Target over the weekend. Well, I decided to try one of them out and – I guess you can already tell – we went with the no-mess toddler fingerpaint!

no-mess fingerpaint arts and crafts

My little helper was eager to see what all the fuss was about.

no-mess fingerpaint arts and crafts

I squeezed the yellowish goo onto the magic Crayola paper…

no-mess fingerpaint arts and crafts

…and let my little guy go to town! He did attempt to successfully eat a fingerful of goo at the very beginning and I had to occasionally bat his hands away from his mouth after that.

no-mess fingerpaint arts and crafts

Even though he’s still intent on putting everything in his little mouth, he was eventually able to complete his first ever masterpiece with this magic, mess-free (and non-toxic, might I add) fingerpaint. So cool!

no-mess fingerpaint arts and crafts

We’ll probably set this one aside until our little guy is a tad older, but I’m so glad I found this totally great magic fingerpaint. It doesn’t show up on your furniture or clothes, and it’s a great introduction to arts and crafts. I hope you will be able to give this a go with your little ones, too!

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Click on the following buttons for more great kid-friendly craft ideas!

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5 great places to find activity ideas for kids

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arts and craftsOver the course of the past two weeks I have featured five different blogs and websites that I have found to be really helpful when it comes to finding activities to do with kids. Because each site was featured one-by-one, I wanted to be sure to put all five of them together in one post so that you could have them all in once place. Cool? Okay.

So on Monday I featured No Time for Flash Cards (www.notimeforflashcards.com), a blog run by a mom/teacher that is filled with TONS of wonderful activity ideas for babies to preschoolers that are both educational and fun. Read post here.

Then on Tuesday it was all about Productive Parenting (www.productiveparenting.com), a website run by education professionals that features more productive play activities for than you can imagine for kids birth to almost-five and, the best part is, you can sign up to have them email you a “productive parenting activity of the day” for as many days of the week as you want! Read post here.

Wednesday we dove into Growing a Jeweled Rose (www.growingajeweledrose.com), a blog run by a mom who is slightly totally obsessed with engaging her young girls in messy play (the messier the better!) and sharing how they learn and have fun while playing with things that are slimy, goopy, sticky, and downright muddy. Yes, this one is even good for babies! Read post here.

Thursday brought an introduction to hands on : as we grow (www.handsonaswegrow.com), a blog run by a mom whose mission is to not only be the best “hands on” mom she can be, but to also share activity ideas in order to help other parents learn how to be more hands on with their kids, too. Amazing mission. Read post here.

And in the following week I rounded things up with a shout out to good ol’ Pinterest (www.pinterest.com), a crazy amazing website that not only helps you organize “pinboards” of all the ideas you find on the world wide web, but also allows you to follow boards of other people’s ideas and…oh yeah…it has the potential to take over your life! But, really, it’s a great resource. Maybe the best one of them all. Read post here.

Have you had a chance to check any of these sites out?

As you can see, each website offers lots of great activity ideas while placing their own unique spin on things. Don’t get overwhelmed, or feel like you have to stay up-to-date with every single one of them. Just check them out, see which one is the best fit for you, and remember to HAVE FUN!

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Activity Ideas for Kids: “hands on : as we grow”

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This week on MamaOT we’ve been featuring various websites and blogs that will give you a creative boost when it comes to coming up with activities to do with the kids in your life. Monday featured “No Time for Flash Cards“, Tuesday was all about “Productive Parenting“, and Wednesday focused on messy play ideas from “Growing a Jeweled Rose“.

Today I am excited to share with you a blog called hands on : as we grow: hands on kids activities for hands on moms. It can be found at www.handsonaswegrow.com.

Hands on : as we grow is run by a stay-at-home mom named Jamie, and she blogs about the activities she does with her two boys (age 2 and age 4). This is a really interactive blog featuring activities that can be searched by the following categories:

My absolute favorite part of hands on : as we grow is Jamie’s challenge to both herself and other parents to learn how to be a “hands on” parent. You absolutely MUST read her post about “How to become hands on with your kids” (click here). It is inspiring, to say the least. She addresses ten hurdles that get in the way of being a hands on parent (like “I’m not crafty” or “I don’t have any of the stuff”) and goes through them one by one to help you get over your fears, insecurities, and excuses about spending quality, hands on time with your kids (and, yes, Pinterest is one of those ways to overcome) — and she does it without an ounce of arrogance or judgment.

Not only does Jamie of hands on : as we grow encourage parents to spend quality hands on time with their kids, she has also issued a challenge called “30 Days to Hands on Play”. As part of this challenge, she asks parents to join her in spending 15 minutes of uninterrupted hands on time with their kids for 30 days straight. And each day, she provides a new idea for how you can spend that time. She also asks parents to do some self-reflection and come up with a simple mission statement about how they want to become more hands on with their kids. It could be as easy as saying, “I want to play with my kids once a day without any distractions for 15 minutes,” or, “I want to learn how to actually enjoy spending time with my kids.” Sounds simple but as a parent, I know, that can be quite a stretch for many of us. Click here to read her introduction to the 30-Day Challenge.

I really can’t say enough good things about hands on : as we grow. I absolutely love Jamie’s heart behind what she does and I would recommend this blog to any parent or caregiver in a heartbeat. If you’re interested in checking out this blog but don’t know where to start, I’d recommend heading over to her “my favorites” page, where she shares a list of some of her fave hands on : as we grow posts (which includes posts related to the 30-Day Challenge). Find her favorites page by clicking here.

I really, REALLY hope you check out hands on : as we grow. To be honest, I haven’t known about this blog for very long and, already, I have been inspired to become more engaged with my baby and avoid interruptions in the precious moments I have with him. I hope it will inspire you, too.

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Activity Ideas for Kids: “Productive Parenting”

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This week on MamaOT we are focusing on expanding your activity repertoire so you can stock up on great ideas for how to play with the kids in your life!

Yesterday I introduced you all to a great kids’ activity blog called No Time for Flash Cards: Learning and Play for Babies, Toddlers, and Kids, which can be found at www.notimeforflashcards.com.

Today I want to introduce you to another site filled with hundreds and maybe even THOUSANDS of educational activity ideas for you do with your minis. It’s called Productive Parenting and can be found at www.productiveparenting.com.

Productive Parenting is a website (not a blog) filled with activity suggestions that have been submitted by professionals with Masters’ Degrees in Education, so you know they are developmentally appropriate activities that are, indeed, productive. You can search activities based on:

  • AGE — early/middle/late infant, early/middle/late one-year-old, early/middle/late two-year old, early/middle/late three-year-old, early/middle/late four-year-old
  • CATEGORY — daily living skills, exploring our world, fun with numbers, language/pre-reading, science adventures, sensory experiences
  • SKILLS LEARNED – attention span, balance, bilateral coordination, body awareness, cause and effect, classifying, concept development, coordination, counting concepts, creative expression, creative movement, emotional development, eye foot coordination, eye hand coordination, fine motor, grasp and release, gross motor, imagination, language development, listening, lower body strength, matching, object permanence, patterning, pre-writing, problem solving, rhythm exploration, role play, self concept, sensory development, sequencing, size and shape discrimination, smelling discrimination, social development, sorting, sound discrimination, spatial awareness, tactile stimulation, trust, upper body strength, visual development, visual discrimination, visual stimulation, visual tracking, vocabulary enrichment

Whew!

The unique thing about this website is that you can sign up to have them email you a “productive parenting” activity as many days of the week as you’d like, so you can start off your day with a bit more inspiration than that over-sized cup of coffee can give you. Very cool!

I do have two words of caution about using this website:

  1. Though all of the activities are educationally sound, I’ve found many can come across as “drill-like” (something that yesterday’s website really tries to avoid). While you shouldn’t drill your eleven-month-old on whether the stuffed bear is sitting “on top”, “next to”, or “under” the chair (a suggestion I received in my inbox the other day), those are certainly good concepts to incorporate into and emphasize in your everyday interactions with your sponge-like baby. My advice: keep the activity suggestions in the back of your mind and don’t take them so literally that you end up making learning un-fun for your little one.
  2. In the “pre-writing” skill area, there is an activity for middle one-year-olds called “Holding Crayons”. In it, they recommend giving the child thick crayons and then encouraging them to scribble while using a pincer grasp (pinching with thumb and index finger while resting crayon on middle finger). First of all, DON’T PUT THICK CRAYONS IN LITTLE HANDS! Thick crayons prevent little hands from developing the small muscles in the hands necessary for strong writing and fine motor skills. Secondly, DON’T MAKE A ONE-YEAR-OLD HOLD A CRAYON WITH A PINCER GRASP. It’s fine — actually, it’s expected — for a one-year-old to hold a crayon with a fisted grasp. Click here for an easy-to-understand image of the progression of handwriting grasp. Give kids regular crayons, trianglular crayons, or short crayons/crayons that have been broken in half (click here to read why).

Overall, Productive Parenting is a really helpful website for anyone looking for an easily accessible list of educational activities for kids under age five. It’s a great resource to help you find some favorite activities, and the fact that they can email you ideas on a daily basis is a huge plus. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Check back tomorrow to learn about a great kids’ activity blog that’s all about getting MESSY!!

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